Water

Survival rates for children who get kidney transplants have improved significantly over the last half-century, a new study finds.

“The outlook for infants and children with end-stage kidney disease was once dismal, with poor survival rates after transplant. There has been great progress in pediatric kidney transplantation, and now the patient survival rate is almost 100 percent,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Srinath Chinnakotla.

Chinnakotla is an associate professor of surgery at the University of Minnesota Masonic Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis, where the study was done.

Since 2002, 97 percent of children who had kidney transplants at the hospital were alive a year later. That compares to 85 percent 40 to 50 years ago, the study showed. Read More..

Comment:

This is absolutely good news and light at the end of the tunnel. With this break-through, more children will survive kidney transplant and this is a strong foundation for further improvements in the entire health system. However, as we celebrate this good news, it is equally important to think about thousands if not millions of disadvantaged children who desperately need a kidney transplant but cannot be saved either because of the poor economic nature of their families or lack of such services in major health facilities nearby.

Environmentalists in Western Uganda are expressing concern over the persistent encroachment on river banks. They say this must stop to avert problems like reduction of the river water levels, silting of the rivers as well as environmental degradation.

Some of the rivers and streams adversely affected by the act include River Rwizi and River Kagera in Western Uganda.

River Rwizi water has subsequently changed due to human activity along the River

Jeconius Musingwire the national Environmental management authority (NEMA) focal person in western Uganda says the need for agricultural land, sand quarrying, over grazing and charcoal burning, have caused more harm than good to the banks of river Rwizi.

He adds that such human activities have led to far-reaching effects. “ The water levels are reducing every now and again which means that towns like Mbarara that use piped water pumped from River Rwizi will face acute water shortages especially in the dry spell more than ever” Musingwire adds.

He explicates that as the result of human activity, soils from upstream end up in the river because of the bare banks causing silting.

Action Plan

Despite the damage already inflicted, the good news is that the situation is reversible.

Protection of the River banks is everyone’s responsibility and it is achievable.

He explains that protecting the river banks through planting of trees on the already damaged banks as well as in the upstream areas and implementing environmental policies and legislations will save the country from a looming catastrophe.